The Many Saints of Newark

There’s something cyclical about The Sopranos, the show that ushered in the golden age of TV, heading to the big screen as the new film The Many Saints of Newark.

David Chase’s creation showed cinema’s scope could be brought into American homes in a way that would be key to streaming services’ successes with prestige TV.

With this feature-length version, co-written by Chase and directed by series veteran Alan Taylor, it finally makes the return journey to movie theatres.

Although it’s a prequel set in the 1960s and early 1970s New Jersey, initially during the 1967 Newark riots, The Many Saints of Newark also has a certain circularity, as, like The Sopranos, a major underlying theme is how the sins of a previous generation are reflected in the next – a point hammered home by an opening scene narrated by melancholic mob boss Tony Soprano’s murdered ‘nephew’ Christopher Moltisanti.

However,...